Blocks in some form are often among the first toys a child receives; block-based games such as Jenga remain popular well into adulthood. Common to both blocks as products intended for entertainment and those used for the construction of human-scale infrastructure is the dependence on human control or manipulation of some form to execute the tasks involved in construction (or disassembly, in some cases). Put another way, block-based structures are not generally able to build or deconstruct themselves.
In addition, conventional systems and building-block toys do not provide any techniques where a plurality of mobile agents can work together and interact in a collaborative manner to complete a construction project. Nor do they have any mechanisms that provide or simulate emotional responses that affect the manner of such collaboration and interaction. Because of such limitations, the level of engagement and interest in such systems and toys is often quite limited.